Homo sapiens have been around for 300,000 years




  • Survived mostly as foragers or hunter-gatherers
    • thorough knowledge of local botany


  • 10,000 years ago: foraging to farming


  • Agriculture arose in several places


  • Farming = basis of advanced civilizations
    • old and new worlds

Foraging Societies




  • Selected for bipedalism in the Homo genus?
    • or brain size increases?


  • Does NOT imply a vegetarian diet
    • Arctic Inuits = only meat
    • Hadza of Tanzania = vegetarian
    • !Kung of S. Africa = plants, eggs, fish, meat

How Native Americans are fighting a food crisis

Early Foragers



  • Fossil evidence reveals the diets of early foragers
    • charred seeds & preserved fruits
    • bones, shells & feathers


  • Coprolites: fossilized poop!
    • pollen forensics


  • Tool remains and cave drawings reveal meat diet


  • 17,000 years ago: Wadi-Kubbaaniya in Nile Valley
    • 25 plant species
    • tubers of grasses with high starch
    • plants needed to be ‘processed’

Modern Foragers



  • Evidence from key modern foraging societies
    • !Kung from tropical African savannas
    • most studied remaining gatherer communities


  • 10,000 years of foraging history
    • continuing today
  • !Kung forage over 100 species of plants and 50 animal species
    • 2355 kilocalories a day
    • 96 grams of protein
    • adequate vitamins and minerals


  • Dedicated division of labor along gender lines
    • foraging = 2.5 days a week

Paleo Diet (Caveman’s diet)


  • Recent diet trend returning to foraging past
    • similar to hunter-gatherer periods


  • No dairy, refined grains or sugars or legumes
    • no available for past foragers


  • Eat large quantities of meats, fruits, nuts, root vegetables and honey
    • human body ‘adapted’ for this diet


  • Based on the fallacy that humans bodies have not evolved
    • lactase gene now ‘stays on’ passed infancy
    • assumes one kind of forager diet

Agriculture: Revolution of Evolution?




  • Archaeology shows plant cultivation started 10,000 years ago


  • Agriculture flourished in Near East, Far East and Mesoamererica for thousands of years


  • Question: Why the switch?
    • a brilliant sage saw the power of seeds?
    • was the transition a revolution?
    • did a gradual cultural evolution take place?
    • was it climate related?

European Stone Age



  • Farming spread from Near East
    • first to Turkey, Greece and Bulgaria
    • ~7500 years ago farming spread to rest of Europe


  • DNA from ancient European foragers compared to earliest farmers
    • 15,000 - 4,300 years ago
    • not related!!!


  • DNA also compared to modern Europeans
    • modern Europeans related to farmers, not foragers
    • first farmers were immigrants, that spread agriculture

Theory of Latitudinal Spread (Jared Diamond)


  • Theory of development & spread of agriculture
    • certain areas of the world & not it others
    • 0.7 miles per year


  • East-West orientation in Eurasia
    • crops & livestock outward from fertile crescent


  • North-South orientation in Americas
    • crops from Mexico to US (.5 miles/year)
    • llama spread Peru to Ecuador (.2 miles/year)


  • Direction of domestication interacts with climate!

Global Population tied to Agriculture


Early Sites of Agriculture (Far East ~11,500 years ago)


The Near East: Fertile Crescent




  • Iran, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Israel
    • some of the oldest sites of agriculture

The Near East: Fertile Crescent



  • Iran, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Israel
    • some of the oldest sites of agriculture


  • Animals domesticated first
    • sheep, cattle and goats


  • Jarmo site: 24 houses with ~150 people
    • 9,000 years ago
    • domesticated grains + foraging


  • Fun fact: Cats domesticated 4,000 years ago
    • evidence from C4 plants!

The Far East: Yellow and Yangtze River Valleys



  • Rice cultivation began 11,500 years ago
    • farming then spread up- and down streams


  • Domestication of millet, hemp, pigs, cattle & poultry after rice


  • Silkworm domestication 5,000 years ago
    • 354 genes differ between domestic & wild


  • Horse domestication 5,000 years ago
    • Batai from plains of Central Asia

The New World: Mexico and Peru


  • Timing of plant domestication matches Fertile Crescent and Far East


  • Domestication of plants dominant
    • squash, corn, peppers, beans, avocado & potatoes


  • Fewer animals domesticated
    • dogs, turkeys, alpacas & guinea pigs


  • Archaeology points to Peru for farming origins


  • Corn domestication in central Mexico
    • 5,000 years ago (found in caves)
    • arrived in US ~2,000 years ago

Characteristics of Domesticated Plants



  • Domesticated plants genetically distinct
    • artificial vs natural selection


  • Wild plants: selection pressures from the environment
    • traits have ‘survival value’


  • Domesticated plants: traits are breed to suit human needs
    • not always advantageous


  • Example: Ensheating husks or non-shattering heads in corn and wheat

Centers of Plant Domestication




  • Vavilov (Russian botanist) proposed 8 centers of crop domestication
    • highest diversity = origin
    • wild strains key for genetic diversity


  • Trading & migration expanded range of crops


  • Some crops do better in new areas
    • most of US crops are not native
    • coffee native to Ethiopia